The move comes after the administration announced a more significant delay to the start of next year's ObamaCare enrollment period. That decision was pitched as a way to give consumers and insurance companies more time to study their options, but also conveniently pushes the second round of enrollment past the 2014 midterm elections.

Remember how they were saying people were going bankrupt and even dying because of a lack of health insurance as an urgent reason to pass ObamaCare right away? Can we expect any of the media outlets that printed those reports to do an analysis based on those studies, of how many will go bankrupt or die because of these delays?

Thank you for contacting my office and sharing your opinion on the Affordable Care Act. I am here to represent my constituents, so its important that I hear directly from you. I am working hard to represent District One by reaching across the aisle on efforts to create a diversified, stable economy in Arizona. This includes supporting legislation to create jobs, fight for our veterans and protect Social Security and Medicare for seniors and working families.

I have been hearing from many District One constituents who have concerns about the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Many of these concerns are understandable. The stunningly inept rollout of the Healthcare.gov website is more than a public relations disaster. It is a disaster for the working families in our district who badly need quality, affordable health care. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working hard to fix these issues so that the millions of Americans who want to get covered can get covered. In the meantime, I will try to address your concerns.

Some people have received letters from their insurance companies canceling their current policy and quoting new policies with higher premiums. The president has announced an extension to sign up for the healthcare exchange for anyone whose current insurance plan has been canceled. If you received a cancellation notice, you can now keep your current plan for a year. If your insurance company has quoted a new policy with a higher premium, you should shop around for the plan that fits you best. Any new policies sold to consumers must be comprehensive, and insurance companies are no longer allowed to deny coverage or charge more based on a persons medical history. Additionally, many people will qualify for help in purchasing coverage as part of the ACA, resulting in lower costs.

I have often said that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect, and I am willing to work across the aisle to improve it. This is why I voted in July for a one-year extension for small businesses and individuals to comply with ACA requirements. But I recently voted against H.R. 3350, the Upton bill, because it would neither fix nor improve the ACA. It would raise premiums and undermine market reform  by discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, restoring annual caps on care, and forcing women to pay more than men for the same coverage.

I have also been hearing concerns that Members of Congress and their staff would be exempt from participating in the exchanges. In fact, members and their staff are the only individuals whom the law explicitly removes from their existing employer-based coverage. In other words, the law requires Members of Congress and staff to receive their health insurance through the new ACA marketplaces. My staff and I will be participating in the exchanges because we believe that Congress should have to follow the law just like everyone else, without exemption.

The Affordable Care Act is designed to give consumers and states new tools to fight against unfair premium increases. While the impact of many of the reforms will be realized over the coming years, it is already bringing unprecedented transparency and oversight to insurance premiums to help rein in the kind of excessive and unreasonable rate increases that have made insurance unaffordable for so many American families and small businesses. The ACA is already helping the people of District One, along with millions of Americans, by making critical changes to our health care system that help people access quality, affordable care.

As the federal government continues its work to address the problems with the Healthcare.gov website, I encourage you to use my office as a resource. Our website has a page that answers many questions about the Affordable Care Act and provides helpful links. You can find it at kirkpatrick.house.gov/resources/healthcare.

I need to hear from you so I can give you a voice in Congress. I urge you to sign up for my eNewsletter at kirkpatrick.house.gov/contact/newsletter so you can receive updates from Washington and Arizona. For social media updates, like my Facebook page at facebook.com/RepKirkpatrick or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/RepKirkpatrick. To contact my DC or Arizona offices for legislative, veterans or constituent resources, please visit my website at kirkpatrick.house.gov.

4
posted on 11/22/2013 1:57:47 PM PST
by Don Corleone
("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")

How is that going to work? MANY employers are going to drop their plans as of the end of 2014, and, I believe, are REQUIRED to notify their employees some time in advance of that, possibly by 10/1/2014 if not 11/1/2014 (60 days), for sure. I think 11/1 is still before the elections. I don't see how the HHS or Dems can keep the employers from dropping the plans and notifying their employees. But, this being from team 0bama and HHS, they probably have not really thought this through, and are going to discover that it is complicated.

EVERYTHING the administration is saying is a lie. The only reason for delaying the 2014 enrollment period (for 2015 policies) is so the public will not have access to the massively soaring premiums for all the Exchange policies that will be displayed on the enrollment website.

The administration KNOWS that these premiums will be soaring and their exposure would be the death knell for MANY, MANY Democrats running for reelection in early November. They want the low information voters to vote Democrat in early November and only later in mid-November will they be able to see those massive premium increases.

I don’t see how the HHS or Dems can keep the employers from dropping the plans and notifying their employees. But, this being from team 0bama and HHS, they probably have not really thought this through, and are going to discover that it is complicated.
*******************************************************
You’re correct, they won’t be able to prevent that (unless of course Obama does it by DECREE, which wouldn’t be surprising). What they are hiding in November 2014 until after the election would be the Exchange plan premiums which would be soaring much more than the private plans.

“...What they are hiding in November 2014 until after the election would be the Exchange plan premiums which would be soaring much more than the private plans.”
*******************************************************************
I forgot to mention that many of those Exchange plans will also have their annual deductibles (which are already exorbitant) and co-pays will also be increasing. Once the rates, deductibles and co-pays are public it will be clear that January 2015 will be the first “spiral” in the Obamacare death spiral—higher and higher costs along with fewer and fewer “healthy” people signing up.

I have often said that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect, and I am willing to work across the aisle to improve it. This is why I voted in July for a one-year extension for small businesses and individuals to comply with ACA requirements.

I like how she says that delaying the implementation of the law is considered an improvement. That must mean that a permanent delay would be the best improvement of all!

Obama does not have the authority. He's buying time. Everyone's policy is by law supposed to be a "qualifying plan", which means that everyone's policy would be canceled now - not just individuals, but businesses too. In July Obama delayed implementation for businesses with more than 50 employees - he doesn't have the authority to delay law. He bought time because he knew in March that the website would not be ready by October. In July he issued a delay decree to mitigate the number of people who would lose their insurance now... to make the disaster smaller.

He got away with one decree, so what's stopping him from another? Well here's another: pushing past the election.

He doesn't have the authority! Do not allow him to bully people into violating the law!

“-—a more significant delay” ——well, there ya go. If it already doesn’t work. If nobody is already enrolled. If nobody already doesn’t have insurance. Then it is already significantly delayed. There must be breaking news in there someplace? The Kenyan’s just calling a spade a prune, or some other fruit. The whole thing is fruit salad but 37% of our finest geniuses haven’t figgered it out yet.

How is that going to work? MANY employers are going to drop their plans as of the end of 2014, and, I believe, are REQUIRED to notify their employees some time in advance of that, possibly by 10/1/2014 if not 11/1/2014 (60 days), for sure.

You're right. Insurance companies are still regulated by the states, and I believe most require notification of cancellations to be something like 90 days in advance. So unless ZeroBama issues another Executive Order cancelling that little detail, they'll be finding out.

Oh don’t worry. They will know. If the elections were in November 2013, they would have been defeated big time because notices went out 90 days before which happens to be before November. If Democrats were smart (thankfully they are not), they would have had the extension go until March 2015 and then they would be sorta home free. This is going to be an ongoing disaster for the Democrats for awhile. Oh sure it will die down for a bit but it will come barreling back next early Fall.

38
posted on 11/23/2013 9:54:50 AM PST
by napscoordinator
( Santorum-Bachmann 2016 for the future of the country!)

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